Chechen Leader Rejects Russia Truce : Europe: Yeltsin had sought cease-fire during WWII commemoration. Fighting rages on.

Chechen leader Dzhokar M. Dudayev rejected a truce with Russia and fighting continued Saturday across the breakaway Muslim republic, dimming hopes in Moscow and Washington for a truce in Chechnya during the coming international gathering here to mark the 1945 victory in Europe.

“The people and the government of Chechnya do not need a temporary truce, a moratorium or an amnesty from Russia,” Dudayev told the Interfax news agency from the rebel headquarters in Vedeno in the mountains of southeastern Chechnya.

He said Chechens would not facilitate Russian attempts to convince the international community that Moscow has peaceful intentions toward Chechnya.

Under pressure from the Western leaders who are to arrive in Moscow on May 9 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin had unilaterally called a cease-fire that was to take effect early Friday and run until May 12.

President Clinton called Yeltsin on Thursday to urge that the temporary truce be turned into a more enduring search for a peaceful solution to the 5-month-old conflict in the secessionist region.

But the truce never took hold. Eight Russian soldiers were killed and four were wounded in the first 24 hours, according to the Russian government press service. Chechen officials said 19 Russians and eight Chechen fighters had been killed. None of the casualties could be independently confirmed.

Russian commanders said their soldiers had orders not to shoot first but to fight when fired upon.

“If anybody tries to disrupt the cease-fire, he’ll be sorry,” said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Konstantin Kobets.

Fighting was reported Saturday across a swath of southern Chechnya, from Russian shelling near the town of Bamut in the west, to a Chechen mortar attack that killed four Russian soldiers in Nozhai-Yurt in the east.

Chechen guerrillas appeared to be continuing their strategy of hit-and-run attacks aimed at making the Russian “occupation” of Chechnya as painful as possible.

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In the past two days, Chechens have attacked a Russian checkpoint in the capital, Grozny, and thrown two grenades into a city district commander’s office, according to Russian sources. Chechens also claim to have ambushed Russian forces in Gudermes, Shali and Argun, towns that Russian troops claimed to have “cleansed” of rebel fighters after an all-out spring offensive.

Negotiations between Russian and Chechen military commanders were held Friday in the town of Noviye Atagi, 18 miles south of Grozny, but made little progress.

The Russian commander, Maj. Gen. Gennady Troshev, emerged from the meeting to tell reporters that the delegation headed by Dudayev’s chief commander, Aslan Maskhadov, had agreed to the truce. But Maskhadov later told reporters that the Chechens had no intention of laying down their weapons until Russian troops withdraw from Chechnya, and had agreed only to an exchange of prisoners and wounded soldiers.

The Russian military has not disclosed how many prisoners are to be exchanged. Pyotr S. Kosov, an adviser to the president of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, told Moscow’s Trud newspaper that about 100 Russian prisoners are being held in Chechnya, and 200 more have been swapped for Chechen captives.

Kosov said 200 other Russian prisoners died while in Chechen hands, from Russian air raids, wounds and diseases. That figure could not be confirmed. As of April 19, Russian commanders listed 1,518 soldiers killed and 250 missing.

Russian officials predicted that Chechens would attempt to step up the fighting during Clinton’s visit to Russia, and Dudayev’s recent remarks left no doubt of his determination to try to embarrass the Kremlin while the world is watching it celebrate its crowning achievement--the victory over Nazi Germany.

“Russia’s aggression (in Chechnya) has finally revealed to the entire civilized world the phenomenon of ‘Russism,’ ” Dudayev said in an interview published in Saturday’s editions of Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. “This disease is even worse than fascism, Nazism or racism.”

Dovish Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin said Saturday that the government would try to make the cease-fire stick and could even extend it beyond May 12.